Charisma~ Poe Dameron

Forgive me Father for I have sinned...

Aria could feel the ship landing in her bones. She felt every shake of the transport as if someone where reaching into her skin and forcibly rattling her insides. Her body moved with one giant pulse. Each beat of her heart spread over her entire body until she felt like the waves of a raging ocean. Even as she laid still along the lounge, she could feel herself moving to her own rhythm. 

"We're landing." Kare told Aria's unconscious form. She wasn't sure why she did, but she wanted Aria to be kept in the loop. "Also, for the record, I think it was incredibly stupid for you to do what you did. I mean... why would you willingly sacrifice yourself to the First Order? That's so-" Kare stopped herself as she looked down at Aria's pale face. There was no smirk curving on her lips, no beautiful eyes that gleamed with mischief, no sarcastic comment on the tip of her tongue. Kare looked down at Aria and realized she didn't recognize the girl before her. 

Whoever Aria was- whatever happened to her back on the Star Destroyer- it made her into someone that Kare would never understand. 

"Kare? Check the ship for repairs when we land." Poe came into the lounge to relieve Kare of her babysitting duties. When he stepped in and saw Aria's still unconscious form, his heart tightened. "Still nothing?"

"She mumbled something when we were still in lightspeed, but I didn't catch it." Kare told her Captain. Poe nodded his thanks as Kare left the two of them alone. 

He slowly stepped up to her side, then bent to his knees by the couch. When he was level with her sleeping form, he reached up and gently removed a stray piece of hair that had attached to her lip. 

"Aria," He whispered to try and wake her. He knew she would want to be awake when they landed, he just hated the idea of having to disrupt her sleep. "Ariavanna-" He ran his knuckles lightly over her clammy cheek. "Ariavanna Leia Solo." He never once used her full name, but it seemed to work as Aria turned her head towards him. 

"Poe?" Her voice caught on his name, but the soft sound was still enough to give Poe life. 

"It's me." He ran his fingers back through her hair as he moved closer to her. She leaned into his touch almost unconsciously. Her eyes barely opened and yet she moved towards him like a child to its mother. 

Then, Aria's mind came back to her and she sprung to life, clutching Poe's shirt in one fist and the back of the couch in the other. "Where is he- did I- what happened?" She looked around with wild, terrified eyes. 

Poe reached up to try and wrench her fist from his shirt, but it was like steel. He couldn't understand how such a petite girl could be so powerful. "He's okay. You didn't kill him." He consoled her. 

Her chest heaved as she looked around them. In her head she was still in her cell, she had just forced her brother- her only living family member- back against a wall so hard he lost consciousness. 

"No, I-" Aria shook her head, as she did a pain struck from the back of her skull. Lack of water and sleep hit her with the force of a jump to lightspeed. "I don't remember-" She squeezed her eyes shut to try and will the pain away. 

Poe finally loosened her grip just enough to free his wrinkled shirt, then he immediately laced his fingers through her to ground her. "I came into the cell." He recounted the events for her. "You asked me to check his pulse. I did. He was breathing." He spoke slowly and in short sentences so she understood. "He was alive when we left." 

Aria slowly turned her head to meet his sincere gaze. Her chest still heaved dangerously under her orange jumpsuit and her cheeks reddened with a crazed dizziness. 

"He was?" Her voice shook with uncertainty. 

Poe nodded as he rubbed his thumb along the fatty side of her palm.